USSR Culture

Soviet poster artist Viktor Ivanov

You returned life to us. Soviet poster artist Viktor Ivanov (29 October 1909, Moscow – 26 November 1968, Moscow)

Born 29 October 1909 in Moscow, Soviet poster artist Viktor Ivanov was an honored Artist of the RSFSR (1955) and Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1958). A recognized master of political posters, he worked as a painter and artist of cinema. In 1929 he graduated from the Moscow State Technical College of Fine Arts, where he was trained at the Studio of D. Kardovsky. The same year he entered the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the Russian Academy of Arts in Leningrad, from which he graduated in 1933. While a student, he began working as a poster artist of Izogiz. In 1930 he worked as a film artist at the “Mosfilm”. Since 1934, he became a permanent participant of all-Russian, all-Union and international exhibitions.

Noteworthy, in 1946 and 1949 Viktor Ivanov became a winner of the USSR State Prize for the series of posters. Besides, in 1948 he got ten honorary diplomas at the International Poster Exhibition in Vienna. Also, in 1964 – Silver Medal of the USSR Academy of Arts, in 1967 Gold Medal of the USSR Academy of Arts for a series of posters. Viktor Ivanov was the author of the book “How to Make a Poster”, Moscow, 1963, and a number of articles about the Soviet political poster and art in cinema. And already in 1970 he got a Special Award, posthumously, for the posters at the All-Union competition of political posters on the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s birth.

Working in the “Windows of TASS” (1941-1943) he created a series of posters, including those dedicated to Lenin and the struggle for peace, which were characterized by journalistic passion, concrete theme. Viktor Ivanov also worked in the field of easel painting and cinema design.

Soviet poster artist Viktor Ivanov

Viktor Ivanov (1909-1968). We drink the water of the native Dnepr, we will drink from the Prut, the Neman and the Bug. 1942 Poster

Forward! To the west! 1942

Long live the friendship of the peoples of the USSR and China. 1949

Poster with a poem about grandad who accidentally met Lenin, about happy life of Soviet children